Powers of the Wasteland
The Axe Tribes
The Axe Tribe live off the land, hunting, fishing, and gathering. They’re also very talented wood craftsmen, particularly adept at canoes, which they use to navigate the lakes and rivers of their homeland. They’re semi-nomadic, and move their homes with the season. All tribe members are expected to know how to wield an axe, both in battle and as a tool. Most members of the Axe Tribe are human, though any who can prove themselves worthy are inducted into the tribe, including a good number of freaks, and even a few simians.
The Axe Tribe’s spiritual beliefs are an eclectic blend of many pre-war religions, but one especially notable element is their reverence for Palbun. They believe that he is a giant who once roamed the land. Accompanied by his magical bull steer, his skill with the axe is legendary. The Axe Tribe has crafted many totems of Palbun at holy sites, but the holiest of all are those statues from the beforetime.
Vaultlings
Sydney Founder, the CEO of Vault-Tec, was able to create a series of shelters throughout North America in hopes of preserving human civilization. These shelters held a miniature nuclear reactor and recycling systems for water and air. Stockpiles of food and supplies as well as indoor gardens complete with powerful lamps were available. With careful management of resources inhabitants could survive for generations. Additionally these “vaults'' had massive libraries of reference materials, textbooks, technical manuals, historical accounts, and popular fiction; anything that would help future generations understand what human civilization was like before any great societal decline. The central belief would be that future generations to one day return to the world above, but if need be they believed they could maintain a small population indefinitely.
Through careful rationing and proper recycling, the inhabitants of these vaults lived completely cut off from the world outside. Each vault of 100 individuals had a council under the main guidance of a single director. To survive in this precisely managed environment of finite resources, directors instituted strict controls to ensure that they didn’t overuse resources, including managing population control and sanctioned childbirth. Aberrant or independent behavior was frowned upon (or worse, severe punishments given). Vault inhabitants spent most of their time maintaining electrical and mechanical equipment, tending to indoor gardens, and learning about pre-war society in the vault’s library. While the vault is filled with books and computer files describing nearly every aspect of pre-war life, vaultling’s knowledge is purely academic. While they might have thousands of pictures of everything from dogs to spacecraft, nobody who currently lives in the vault has heard the call of a wild animal, smelled dew on the grass, or seen a sunset.
Alternate survivors utilized technology from Plimski Solutions, entering a state of suspended animation using cryostasis. These cryostasis chambers were built in deep underground shelters, typically holding 20-30 occupants. Periodic sensor readings of radiation and chemical hazards from the surface would indicate if the cryostasis process would irreversibly begin to awaken the occupant weeks later. Unbeknownst to the company at the time, after several decades the chamber occupant would undergo severe amnesia. They would still have a bevy of reference materials, food, and essential equipment to make the most of the new world they would emerge to. However, most that revived from Plimski Solutions Shelters had no idea of their life in the beforetime. Even worse, some were awakened prematurely, or slept in poor quality chambers exposed to radiation from the surface.
While these respective survivors have different experiences both are considered vaultlings (a few might refer to Plimski Solutions survivors as ice cubes), ignorant of the challenges and ways of the world they now explore.
Wright Family
As humanity slowly started to crawl its way out from disaster, many returned to former large cities to reclaim remnants of technology they had lost. Many died in the process, falling victim to radiation or mutant beasts, but those who escaped danger found wonders from the old world and prospered. This was the fate of the Wright family, who returned to the ruins of what was once Green Bay. They combed the ruins, and not only found many tools that they could use, they began trading their goods to the small number of settlements beginning to form in what was once Wisconsin. Over the decades, the Wright Trading Company has expanded to include not only members of the family itself, but also hundreds of employees who scour the landscape for scrap, protect caravans, and provide other support roles. The actual buying and selling is still reserved for members of the Wright family, which now includes several branches.
The family head, Anthony Wright, was born almost 25 years after the Great War ended. Little else is known about his parents, as Anthony never spoke of them and refused to even mention their names. He started out fending for himself, hunting, gathering food, and salvaging what he could from ruins. Anthony started to realize that he could do more serving as an intermediary. He learned what people needed, found it someplace else, transported it, and took his cut. Not long after he started trading, Anthony met a fisherwoman named Sable. The two fell in love and were soon married. Their children became the first employees of the Wright Trading Company. The Wright family weren’t the only ones with this idea, and early on several other scavengers and traders attempted to compete with the Wright family, but the family didn’t tolerate any competition. The Wright Company either convinced traders to work for them, pushed them out of the territory, or the rival traders were executed “for the crime of unlicensed trading.”
On his deathbed, Anthony named Jed Wright his successor. Unfortunately Jed’s brother Ben thought he should control the company. The brothers’ arguments turned to brawls and soon to bloodshed. The families fought for 3 years, and the violence didn’t end until Ben and all of his children were dead. The brothers’ war hurt the Wright family, and for some time it looked like they might fall from power, but in the twenty-four years since the end of the feud, the company has grown even stronger and has regained its place as the de facto trading power in the north.
The Wright Company is concerned with governing only as it affects their business. They maintain enough order to make sure that conditions are safe for their customers and workers. They maintain roads and ports, but otherwise care little for infrastructure, or education. They dole out punishments for major crimes like theft and murder with speed and little due process. There are no jails, and punishments usually involve branding, losing a hand, or execution.
Members of the Wright family live comfortable lives. Not only do they never worry about their next meal, they enjoy luxuries like books, guns, and even the occasional use of a gas-powered generator. They are the closest thing the region has to royalty. Most other people in Wright Town live in pretty squalid conditions. They barely scrape together enough to keep themselves fed, and many go into debt to the Wrights to make it through winters. A lack of sanitation and modern medicine also makes disease common throughout their towns. There is a very small band between the Wrights and the toiling masses. Most of these people survive by working for the Wright family in ways that they deem more important. These include caravan guards, smiths, and mechanics. Most of these people dream of marrying into the Wright family, and when they do, they always take the Wright name.
The Kingdom of Geneva
In the remnants of Lake Geneva several small hovels scraped out a living picking the bones of ruins to the east along the lake, and among the great ruins to the south east (which was once Chicago). Although the region was rich in salvage, it was dangerous and filled with horrible creatures. Hearty individuals challenged these monsters, slaying those that they could, and carved out a sliver of civilization. These heroic individuals were quickly elevated to power, and rather than become mere warlords, sought to interact with other communities. A feudal system emerged under the protection of knights and lords. Among them a charismatic leader and adept warrior quickly rose through the ranks of the Knights of Geneva and became their king.
John Hanson is that king. Wed and with children, he is fond of public works and public festivals, but little mind for the practical logistics of running a kingdom. He keeps the knights strong and prepared for battle against rampaging monsters, bolstered by his mighty wizards, mutants with immense psionic power. However some fear he misjudges the threat of the Wright Trading Company to the north, the Green Empire across the eastern lake, or the raiders and bandits within his lands.
The Green Empire
The city of Grand Rep is the center of the Green Empire (formerly Michigan). Within Grand Rep’s reinforced walls is a biodiesel plant, fed with crops of soybeans. The denizens of the empire enjoy judicious use of motor and electrical vehicles, and electric power from functioning solar arrays, wind turbines, and diesel generators. However the functionality of motor vehicles and boats comes at a price. Soybean must not only be grown for food but also for fuel, and slavery has become the means to ensure sufficient supply. Nearly half the population of the Green Empire are slaves.
Emperor Harmony Rose is young, and newly appointed to her role as sole ruler to the Green Empire. She had spent her life being groomed to serve as an advisor to her elder brother, Daybreak. Upon the death of her father, the Emperor Simon Rose, her brother was killed the day of his coronation by a conspiracy of slaves. Minor slave rebellions quickly spread, but as her first act as emperor, she brutally crushed slave resistance after a hard fought year. She had learned bitter lessons from the death of her brother and eyes expansion of her empire.